Southeast Missouri State University's women's soccer team improved dramatically from its inaugural season to last year and coach Heather Nelson thinks the best is yet to come.

Nelson truly believes the Otahkians, featuring an impressive blend of youth and experience,will make a strong push for their first Ohio Valley Conference championship and an NCAA Tournament berth in just their third year as a program.

"I really feel we have a squad that can compete for the OVC regular season and tournament championships and go on to the NCAAs," she said. "This is the first year the OVC Tournament winner gets an automatic (NCAA) bid and that's a real driving force for us. That's our big goal."

The Otahkians, who open the 2001 season by hosting a four-team tournament Friday and Sunday, went 4-8-1 in their initial campaign in 1999. That record was bumped up to 10-6-1 last season. Southeast finished tied for third in the six-team OVC both years.

"I think we took a big leap from the first year to the second year and I think we'll take an even bigger leap this year," said Nelson, who began the Southeast program. "I think we've improved a lot."

That's in large part to the return of nine players who started at least nine games last season and a highly regarded 10-member freshmen class that features some of last year's top high school prospects from the talent-rich St. Louis area.

"We've got a good combination of experience and some very athletic freshmen," Nelson said. "This is the most depth we've had. We'll be able to sub in and not lose anything."

The Otahkians, who are still extremely young, will rely heavily on their only two seniors: Nichole Thiele and Beth Guccione, who will serve as co-captains.

Thiele, a former Cape Central High School standout, has been first-team All-OVC in each of the program's two seasons. Last year she scored 13 goals to rank second in the league in goals per game, and she added five assists. She was 30th nationally in points per game.

Guccione was the first-team All-OVC goalkeeper in 1999 but missed all of last season while recovering from shoulder surgery.

"Those are our two leaders," said Nelson.

Sophomore Erika Todd also earned first-team all-conference honors last year. She tied with Thiele for the team lead with 13 goals. Todd also had seven assists and ranked 21st nationally in points per game.

A third Otahkian to garner first-team all-league accolades in 2000 is sophomore Valerie Henderson, who finished third on the squad in goals with six and tacked on five assists.

Two second-team All-OVC players return in juniors Stephanie Bleau and Jenny Hamilton. Sophomore Jen Cross made honorable-mention all-league last year.

Other returning starters are junior Kori Marchi and sophomores Karen Schmitt and Julie Wunderlich (Jackson High School). Schmitt scored four goals last season to rank fourth on the squad.

One other player returning from injury is sophomore Jen Unrein, who redshirted last year after being honorable-mention All-OVC in 1999. And another returning player who made a few starts last season is sophomore Carolyn Behnen.

Nelson expects to receive plenty of contributions from her freshmen, several of whom have already made quite an impact in the two exhibition games.

During a 3-1 win over Memphis, Marla Gianino, Erin Slattery and Lauren Hauskins accounted for the goals. That trio, along with Michelle Frossard, started in last Friday's exhibition finale, a scoreless tie with highly regarded Saint Louis.

Other freshmen, many of whom Nelson will also be counting on, are Heather Reding, Katherine Huelsing, Lauren Zacheis, Diana Poovey and walk-on Anna Vinberg. Another rookie, Lisa Schweppe, will redshirt because of a knee injury.

* This weekend's season-opening tournament at Houck Stadium will be a round-robin affair.

Friday's schedule has Ball State playing Jacksonville State at 5 p.m. and Southeast facing Belmont at 7 p.m. Sunday, it's Ball State vs. Belmont at noon and Southeast vs. Jacksonville State at 2 p.m.